Common Core Essay Example for Free

Common Core Essay The common core is a set of standards which were developed by state leaders along with teachers, school administrators and many other people, not the Federal Government. The common core has standards. Standards which are not curriculum. Standards that â€Å"do not tell principals how to run their schools, and they do not tell teachers how to teach. Local teachers, principals, and district administrators ultimately decide how the standards are to be met and the curriculum to be use† (Laine and Minnich). The school districts still have to choose which textbooks to use and, which curricula they wish to add and drop. The basic standards of the common core are: Aligned with college and workforce-training expectations; Rigorous in content and include the application of knowledge through higher-order skills; Built on strengths and lessons taken from state standards; Informed by standards in top-performing countries, so that all students are prepared to succeed in the global economy and society; and Evidence-based, clear, and aligned across a child’s K-12 education. The common core has many pros and cons to reforming the education system. In the Article The common core is a change for the better the authors mention that the common core provides a good foundation on what needs to be taught (Gardner and Powell). The authors also touched on the fact that students nowadays are â€Å"more mobile than ever†, families have to move around more to follow and find available jobs. With the common core all across the Country have the same standards. There is some consistency within all schools in America. If a family was to move from Maine to Nevada, it would be quite impossible to expect things to be the exact same. However, you can still have an idea of the standards and know what to expect. This is a great thing about the Common Core. Every Student this way is exposed to the same standards. Once students are mingled together in colleges and universities across the country the professors can expect almost every student to be able to do the same things, to a degree. Not to say that every student knows the  exact same co ntent, however they will all have graduated high school with the same skills. Skills that may be taught in a variety of styles, none the less resulting in the same skills. The common core requires teachers to be very specific and hand out rubrics, stating exactly the quality of work that is expected. This eliminates the confusion that can arouse from complicated projects or open research topics. The students will know exactly what the teacher is requiring of them. Ultimately making it easier on the students to provide what the teacher wants and getting the highest grade possible if the students puts in the effort required to meet the expectations. Effort: defined as â€Å"an earnest or strenuous attempt† by dictionary.com, is where a problem arises in the common core. The common core standard â€Å"Rigorous in content and include the application of knowledge through higher-order skills† is asking 21st century students to put in lots of effort, they can’t ask Siri to write their English paper or do their history project. Most high school aged students in the United States are not going to put in the required effort to achieve rigorous assignments. I know that when I was in high school my attitude was ‘if I wait to the last minute it only takes a minute’. That’s not because I was swamped with assignments or didn’t understand it. It was because I would rather be doing anything else, after having spent all day in classrooms with new information being drilled into my head. The absolute last thing I wanted to do was go home and spend more hours on homework. Making high school more rigo rous is going to prevent kids from being kids. Students in the United States are less motivated to learn and value education less and less. Stephen Krashen says that another problem with very rigorous assignments is â€Å"CCSS are so demanding that in English language arts classes, educators and students will have little time for anything not directly linked to the standards† (Krashen). I do not quite agree with this statement because the standards are not the curriculum being taught, just the way it is being taught. Teachers and schools have some free space to spend as much time as they feel necessary to focus on aspects they feel more important. The common core has pros and cons, just like anything in life. One set of standards isn’t going to please everyone in the United States. My personal opinion is that the common core has good intentions, but may be a bit unrealistic. If every school in America was teaching the same skills to the same degree, all students would have the same experiences entering college. There are 50 states with thousands of different schools in each states. Within those thousands of schools there are teachers who all have their own style of teaching. Not to mention the millions of students that all learn a little differently at a different pace. What are the odds that every state school, and teacher are able to provide every student with the exact same skills, using the exact same standards? There are good intentions behind it, and the United States can give it a chance, but I feel as though it may be unrealistic. Works Citied Fine, Sarah. Moving Forward With The Common Core. Education Week 30.8 (2010): 18-19. Professional Development Collection. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. Gardner, Nancy S. Powell, Rod. The Common Core Is A Change For The Better. Phi Delta Kappan 95.4 (2013): 49-53. Professional Development Collection. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. Krashen, Stephen. THE COMMON CORE. (Cover Story). Knowledge Quest 42.3 (2014): 36-45. Professional Development Collection. Web. 16 Mar. 2014. Richard, Laine, and Chris Minnich. Common Core: Setting the Record Straight. Education Week 32.36 (2013): Web. 16 Mar. 2014

The Princess Bride Essay -- essays research papers

In the film, 'The Princess Bride,'; directed by Rob Reiner, Cary Elwes plays a farmboy known as Westley during the Middle Ages. Westley falls in love with Buttercup, played by Robin Wright, who lives upon the land where he works. Buttercup also falls in love with Westley, so he sets out to find his fortune so they can be married. A short time later, Buttercup learns that Westley has been killed by pirates. The Prince of the land chooses Buttercup to be his bride, regardless to her feelings. Before the marriage takes place, Buttercup is kidnapped. Westley, disguised as a pirate in black, sees the kidnapping occur and chases after Buttercup. He catches up and defeats all three of the kidnappers using his strength, skill, and smarts. Buttercup learns of his true identity and together they escape from the evil prince. Westley is an intelligent man who makes good choices. He is a hero in many aspects. Buttercup, on the other hand, made some poor choices.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Westley was intelligent. He displayed this characteristic when he poisoned the cups of wine. He poisoned both cups to guarantee that Vizzini, played by Wallace Shawn, one of the kidnappers of Buttercup, died. The intelligence was in the preparation. Westley had built up immunity to the poison before so that the small amount didn't affect him when he drank it, but affected Vizzini.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Westley also showed intelligence when he couldn't move, but made Prince Humperdink beli...

Modernization theory and Dependency theory Essay

Skidmore and Smith present two theories, Modernization theory and Dependency theory. Modernization theory is that positive material growth yields positive social equality. Dependency theory states that a dependent economy yields or brings social inequality, which in turn can lead to political authoritarianism. Skidmore and Smith state that dependency theory distorts modernizations predicted outcomes. Mercantilism is a form of dependency. The social, economic and political outcomes from Modernization seem positive. Socially, the transition from a rural to an urban society will bring a change in values. People would begin to participate in voluntary organizations which only an authentic democracy requires. A middle class would emerge to play a progressive and economic role in society. This theory shows that they weren’t different just behind. Skidmore and Smith’s modernization theory is used to describe the nature of development. The social, economic and political outcomes of a dependant economy are negative. Social inequality will appear and the different classes will become further and further apart. Economically Latin America would depend on foreign markets, which â€Å"during the 20’s a depression occurred.† Economically Latin America exported raw materials and imported finished goods. This leads to growth without development. Economic dependency leads to a political authoritarianism. The causative variable for these outcomes that Skidmore and Smith stated is economic dependency. There are two forms of economic dependency that Skidmore and Smith explain. They are mercantilism, the colonial period, and the ECLA thesis, post 1880 period. Mercantilism is a dictated economic policy that emerged during the colonial period. Mercantilism required colonies to produce raw materials for the mother country. The mother country would supply the colonies with finished products in return. This arrangement was geared toward the economic enrichment of the mother country at the expense of the colonies. The ECLA thesis developed by Presbish, it states that overtime the prices of finished products rise faster than the prices of  primary products, raw materials. The ECLA thesis explains the nature of dependency during the post-independent, 1880 period to the present.

Movie Review about Social Network (2010)

The facebook and the open source movement are both social sites where people share information. Facebook started in 2003 in Harvard University out of a love affair which went sour among two student partners, where a male partner hack the database of the institution trying to tarnish the name of the female partner (Harris 25). Social network movie is about a website facebook which came about due to a lawsuit directed by David Fincher and it was released on 1/10/2010. It explains how people share social and personal information. It is popular among the student body and they call it Thefacebook and due to the issue which surrounded the social network movie, they later avoided the courts and called it Harvard gentlemen. All these sites were used for socialization and especially the social movie spiced by the YouTube movies (Harris 25). There is instant messaging in facebook where some one can communicate with another person with due privacy and confidentiality through inbox. There is the use of Google talk which is instant in nature and the online text chat. You can type a message that everyone else can read and respond accordingly by posting. With the open source, there is no Google talk and the open chat though both have some privacy and confidentiality depending on how it is used (Harris 27). Facebook is growing very fast as a social network all over the world and it will affect the culture of many people negatively. Facebook is believed to be used mostly by young people (youths) to discuss their own issues; hence degrading their culture and adopting other cultures through addiction and influence by others (Harris 30). These values will affect the future technology negatively if the site is not used for research purposes. The facebook is believed to be used mostly for love and sexual affairs; hence it has been associated with people who are idle, prostitutes and immoral people. There is lack of creativity and innovation for those using facebook because their main agenda is to socialize only. This therefore means that, there will be no development and advancement in technology (Harris 31). The open source movement and social network movie is free for everybody since it articulates on different issues affecting the society and official information is passed through this site (Harris 32). The open source technology is used in the back office where IBM dominates and it is fairly easy to use and understand than the facebook. There more development and innovation in the open source movement because of the coming up of Microsoft, Linux where the oracles which has dominated the universe for its middleware and applications (Harris 35). Works cited Harris, Mark. Inventing Facebook. New York: MIT Press. 2010 (3): 25-35